Catching Up: The Flash Episode 407, "Therefore I Am"

Tonight, Team Flash comes face-to-face with the foe they've been warned about ever since Flash encountered Abra Kadabra, the magician from the future: DeVoe. That would be Clifford DeVoe, whom we will come to know as The Thinker, a classic villain for the Golden Age Flash in the comics.

After an intense search for DeVoe, once it was learned that Ralph Dibney was hired by DeVoe to investigate the mayor, they've finally located the one they believe they are looking for, and are shocked to find him in a wheelchair. But then, so was Harrison Wells / Eobard Thawne (it's complicated) in the first season, so we know that's not an impediment.

Joe and Barry's interview with The Devoes gives them nothing. Well, not quite. It gives Barry suspicions. Clifford Devoe was apparently aware of the exact count of Devoes in the city, and he displayed a passing fascination with Medieval Japan, tying him tangentially to the Samuroid that began this season-long arc. However, Joe isn't convinced. And after Barry interviews Clifford again, this time at the university where he teaches, the Devoes file a complaint against him with his superior.

But Barry does obtain one piece of evidence: a coffee mug of Clifford's, which he has Caitlin test for DNA. The DNA is conclusive: Devoe is not a meta. Similarly when Cisco "vibes" the mug, he finds nothing but a mundane home life. Every single member of Team Flash is convinced that Devoe is not the enemy they seek -- except Barry, because something about Devoe has his "Spidey Sense" tingling. (And that's the third Marvel reference in the last four episodes; either someone at DC is going to pass down an editorial edict, or someone at Marvel is going to start asking for royalty payments.)

When Barry discovers a humming camera within the decapitated head of the Samuroid, he super-speeds his way to the Devoe house, vibrating through the walls to investigate it. But not as The Flash. In fact, once inside, he pulls his hoodie down. (Still a rookie mistake; unmasking for comfort in a crunch situation.) He finds nothing, and is admonished by the rest of Team Flash when he tells them what he's done.

But he didn't get away with it scott free. He was caught on a different camera, one inside the Devoe household. And the complaint they file gets him a two-week suspension from the CCPD, one week before his wedding to Iris.

Even this doesn't deter Barry, however, and he goes to see Clifford once more at his classroom, to ask him to his face what he's up to. And that's when, alone with Barry, Devoe divulges everything he knows about Team Flash -- which is everything. We've been seeing bits and pieces of Devoe's origin throughout this episode, done in flashback, dating back before the particle accelerator explosion, and tying the events of that night of the pilot episode neatly into this origin story. (We know now that Wells/Thawne knew Devoe was in attendance at the press conference before the accelerator was brought online.)

Devoe did get powers. Like Barry, he too got struck by lightning. But instead of physical speed, he got mental speed. Nobody and nothing thinks faster than he does. And when he demonstrates those abilities, demonstrates how he's been moving Team Flash like pawns, operating not a step ahead, not ten steps ahead, but thousands of steps ahead, he easily establishes himself as a formidable foe.

Did I say formidable? No. Reverse-Flash, Zoom, and Savitar were 'formidable.'

The Thinker is scary AF. And it's going to be an intense ride watching this battle play out. We know who the foe is. We know what he's set in motion. But we don't know what he wants, and why he has to be a villain to accomplish it. But we're going to find out.

Just not next week. Because next week, Barry's getting married; and the wedding is going to get crashed.

By Nazi metahumans from a parallel Earth.

It's the annual Arrowverse crossover: CRISIS ON EARTH X. Be there!